It’s glorious

It’s been more than two months since my latest email and I’m finally back with blogging! Three weeks ago we went to Singapore and Malaysia for the weekend. It was Friday after school, we gathered at Batam’s Harbour Front ferry terminal and there were five of us. We arrived in Singapore at 20:00 and continuously took the train and buses all the way to Johor Bahru, Malaysia, which took about 45-60 minutes.

The next day we went to Legoland! I’ve been to Legoland before but this time was different because we spent like 7 hours there, from 10 to 5:30 and we went to the water park as well. It was super tiring but really fun! Sunday we crossed the immigration checkpoint and travelled back to Singapore to do some shopping and yesh, everybody shopped crazily! We were pretty careful though, and I still managed to haggle somehow so that was great. Everything runs extremely fast in Singapore but I love this city. It’s super clean!

The next weekend I flew to Jakarta to get my visa sorted out. I didn’t really have a chance to explore the city much, which was okay because I wasn’t in shape and very tired! Sunday evening I came back to Batam and had this delicious meal for dinner (can’t remember the name). So basically I haven’t been able to sleep well lately, and I have tons of things to do at school so this Wednesday, I nearly passed out. Fortunately Lea came to help! YESH, LEA THE SPANISH GIRL! SHE IS HERE since last week! She’s now taking over my English classes in Primary 6 so that means, I only have 41 hours – 8 hours = 33 hours a week now, and she’s helping me with German classes as well! We haven’t seen each other for like eleven months. Cool things happening:)

Last Tuesday I got to teach P4 Prudence and yeah I’m talking about the B boy. I gave them a paperwork but this guy didn’t do it. He was just moving around instead and wasn’t paying any attention to it. So I asked him to go to the faculty room to do it. Later at lunch time, I saw his paper and it was empty! He said he couldn’t do it. Well, of course he couldn’t. I tried to converse with him and asked why he never followed my lessons and kept ignoring me. I told him I was tired his behaviour. He then cried. There was a moment of silence. I used to be just like him when I was younger. I knew how it felt like, I really did and indeed, it was HELL. From that moment I realised how hard my teachers back then struggled with my learning difficulties. I could barely see him in the eyes because that’d bring me to tears. I motivated him just to make him feel better and told him that I came here to help. I asked him again about his parents but he didn’t reply. But I knew they never cared about their only son.

The next day I gave him another dyslexia test and this time I was shockingly thunderstruck. His reading skills are comparable to those of Primary 1 students! I gave the result to the headmaster and she was shocked, too! So we called the parents and last Friday the mother came and I showed her his son’s dyslexia results. Well, she seemed concerned but I didn’t believe it. I asked her to see to a psychiatrist and do a real diagnosis test for him and I wanted her to do it ASAP, so I threatened her a bit and looks like it worked. Let’s see!

These past weeks I have noticed something really important, that it’s okay to be a little bit different. Well, someone has to be prettier, or smarter, or younger, or richer but those don’t matter, because they will never be YOU. So, instead of asking “Why am I different than others?”, try to ask “Why do I have to be like others?” That’s the actual challenge of life, to be yourself in a world that’s trying to make you like everyone else. Yes, I try to fit in sometimes, but I’ll always try to be the best of whoever I am and proud of it. Anyway, HAPPY NATIONAL TEACHER’S DAY! Lea and I have prepared a video dedicated to teachers! I miss everyone and I can’t wait to see your beautiful faces again later soon:)